The Fate of Those Who Believe
by Izumine Kisamine
Summary: Alfred F. Jones was planning on a normal summer vacation, but of course, who'se plans have ever gone the way they wanted? Rated T because I can. Enjoy


_**Dedicated to Pancakes; you'd make an awesome mermaid~**_

_**So, yeah, hello! I'm not dead! I know it's been forever since I last wrote something, but I've been drawing more lately. I had written a four-chapter story for Kuroshitsuji, but I don't know where it went. Anyway, here is my latest offering~ I've had this idea since I went to the aquarium on holiday in August, but I just wasn't sure how to write it. So, hope you like it~**_

_**I still don't own Hetalia, however much I've tried~**_

_**~X~X~X~X~X~X~**_

The summer holiday. Everyone's favourite time of the school year, with nothing to do but hang out with friends and muck around… and sleep. Alfred F. Jones was certainly doing well at the sleeping part. The blonde teen lay in his bed, snoring lightly, all tangled up in the covers. It was the perfect summer morning. Well, until his alarm went off. The sudden noise caused Alfred to shoot up in surprise and fall of the edge of his bed. "Ow!" He cried as he struggled to free himself from his duvet. "Stupid thing." He cursed the bed dressing under his breath as he finally stood up and rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the floor. He glanced over to his clock to see that it was eleven o'clock. "What? When did that happen?! Sure, the holidays are for sleeping in, but I didn't mean to stay in this late! I wanted to go to the beach and stuff, and now I've probably missed breakfast and I won't get any of Matt's pancakes, what sort of crack comedy is this?!" Frustrated, the teen paused his rant to catch his breath. While he was silent, Alfred heard the sound of the television coming from downstairs. His brother was awake. Perhaps if he asked nicely, the soft-spoken Canadian would make some more pancakes for him.

With breakfast in mind, Alfred quickly pulled on some clothes that he found on the floor and made his way downstairs.

"Hey, Mattie. What're you watching?" Alfred wandered into the living room, where his twin brother was sat staring at the television.

The smaller blonde looked up to his brother for a second before his eyes were drawn back to the screen. "Eh? Oh, just some thing about the Loch Ness Monster."

The taller blonde slumped into the chair next to his twin. "The Loch Ness Monster, what's that?"

"It's an historic monster that lives in a Loch in Scotland."

"Uh, cool. But, um… Where's Scotland."

Matthew's jaw dropped to the floor at his brother's stupidity. After a second or two, he managed to recover himself and form a reply. It's that place above England. Uh… You do know where England is, don't you?"

Alfred looked offended somewhat. "Come on! Credit me with some intelligence, Mattie!" The Canadian rolled his eyes at the irony of it all and sat back in his seat. "So this monster is like, a myth or something?"

"Yeah, there have been tons of reported sightings and photos and stuff, and loads of people flock there to try and catch a glimpse of her."

"Ugh, whatever, it sounds like a load of old crap if you ask me. So, uh, about breakfast." Alfred put on his sweetest smile a nudged up close to his brother, who sighed heavily. He didn't feel like he had the energy to argue with his brother, so he gave in without a fight.

"There are some pancakes out there in the kitchen if you want." The American practically tackled his brother, nearly causing both of them to fall from the couch. "I love you, you're the best brother ever, dude!"

"Yeah, yeah. Now please, get off me." The Canadian nudged at the older teen.

Taking the nudge as a hint, Alfred hopped up from the couch and ran through to the kitchen, shouting after him. "Alright, thanks again!"

Having tracked down the delicious pancakes that his brother had made, Alfred wolfed them down as quickly as he could so he could get out of the house as soon as possible. Once he had cleaned the plate, he popped his head around the corner of the hallway. "Mattie, I'm heading down to the beach! I'll be back whenever!" There was a muffled grunt from the other room that Alfred took to be an "okay" from his brother, so he grabbed a pair of battered old shoes and slipped them onto his feet as he left. It felt great to be outside in the warm summer sun. There was a sea breeze, so it wasn't too warm, and it wasn't raining, which was a nice change. The blond inhaled deeply and took in all the smells of the summer. "What a nice day. I just hope the beach isn't too crowded." Alfred thought aloud as he started off down the road. Luckily for him, he didn't live too far away from the beach. It wasn't the nicest stretch of beach in the world but it was nicer than sitting around the house all day.

After the two and a bit minute walk down the street, Alfred descended the small concrete staircase to the small patch of sand. There were a few empty bottles scattered around and the odd old wrapper floating away on the breeze. Alfred liked to come down here to think things through every now and then, but today he just wanted to relax on his own and enjoy his time before he had to start doing some work for when he got back to school. "Alright!" He exclaimed as he flung his shoes off and ran towards the water. The fresh salty coolness of the waves was very refreshing after being stuck in the same sweaty bed all night.

After his first little paddle, Alfred jumped a few waves, made the first half of a sandcastle and found some interesting stones that he piled up beside his shoes. Soon he had done everything he could do, and laid down in the sand. Soon he got a bit too hot and discarded his shirt and rolled up his jeans. "Wow, this is nice. And who knows, I might actually get a tan!" He laughed to himself, but stopped when something caught his eye. Something in the ocean, a little way out from the beach was shimmering. Intrigued, Alfred sat up. He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes before sliding the specs back up his nose. "What is that?" Slowly he got up and walked closer to the strange sparkle, standing knee deep in the tide. He had to squint to avoid the glaring sunlight, but soon enough he focused in on what was floating around in the sea. There was an animal or something out in the blue. It seemed quite large, certainly bigger than any fish Alfred had seen before, but it definitely wasn't human. There was a huge scaly tail that appeared above the surface of the water every now and then. "What the…" Alfred muttered. He took a few steps closer, the water was getting deeper and the bottoms of his jeans were getting wet. All he could do was stare out into the deep blue and smile whenever the pearlescent green scales showed themselves above the water. He didn't know what it was the tail belonged to, but the sheen of the scales was truly captivating.

He could have stared out at the mystery animal for the rest of the afternoon, but his pocket started making noises at him. He dipped his hand into his pocket and retrieved his phone, flicking it open and pressing it to his ear. "Y'ello?"

"Hello, Al? Francis just called. He and Gilbert want to come over. Can you come home and help with dinner?"

Alfred smiled. "Uh, yeah, sure. I'll be there as soon as I can, kay?"

"Alright, thanks Al." And with that, the American slipped his phone back into his pocket. He went and retrieved his shoes and shirt and the collection of cool looking stones that he had found. As he did, he took one last look up to see if he could catch one last glimpse of his mystery fish. He hesitated a second. He thought that he should go and check out what was happening with the animal, but then he considered just how angry Matthew would be if he didn't turn up when he had said he'd be back. He was torn between the water and home, and eventually home won out. He slipped on his shoes, slung his shirt over his shoulder and headed home with his small stone collection in his back pocket.

If Alfred had looked back into the waters one last time he would have seen the red tint that coloured the waters around the animal.

"Mattie! I'm back!" Alfred chirped as shut the door behind him.

"Hiya Al." Matthew poked his head around the kitchen door, "Glad to see you here on time. Dinner is under control, why don't you go through, say hi?"

"Alright. Holler if you want a hand." The taller brother smiled at Matthew and made his way into the living room. "Oh, boys, cut it out!" Alfred laughed as he stood in the doorway watching two of his best friends making out in the armchair. The blond Frenchman was straddling the albino and sticking his tongue down the German's throat. When they heard the teen laughing they carried on for a moment before Francis pulled back and smiled sheepishly, while the younger man collapsed back into the chair, smirking. "Sorry, Alfred." Francis chuckled.

"Nice to see you, anyway. How's things?" Gilbert asked, sitting up in the chair and shoving the blond off his lap. Alfred hesitated. Should he tell his friends about the weird fishy thing he had seen while he was out. He thought his friends would understand, even if nobody else would.

"Well," he began, taking a seat on the sofa across the room from the other two men, "while I was out at the beach, I saw this… this thing."

"Thing? That's vague even for you, Al." The albino smirked

"Oui, what kind of thing?" Francis chuckled from his seat on the floor.

"Well, it was like a fish. At least, I think it was like a fish, I couldn't really see it. It was underwater, see?" Alfred began waving his hands around in a vain attempt to try and convey what it was he was explaining to his friends. "It was really shiny and scaly and-"

"Alfred? Could you come and help me plate up, please?" The teen sighed heavily; could his brother have worse timing? He was just getting to the best part! Honestly... He threw his friends an apologetic look and made his way through to the kitchen to help Matthew put the food on the table. He wasn't even out of the room before Gilbert had pulled the Frenchman back up into his lap and the two were lost in each other all over again.

Alfred and Matthew quickly laid the dinner out on the table and five minutes later, the four men were all sat around the table. France was sipping wine from his glass, eyeing up Gilbert, who was emptying his glass of beer at an alarming rate. Alfred was downing can after can of coke while his almost identical brother sat and calmly drank his small glass of water. He liked it when he had his friends over like this. Especially when they weren't all called together to help one of their number with some kind of bad news. "So," Gilbert piped up through his beer, "What was it you were telling us about earlier?"

The American teen finished off his can with a loud slurp, to which Matthew gave a stern look across the table. "Oh, uh. Don't worry about it." He laughed, squashing his can and flicking it across the table where it hit the German square in the head.

_**~X~X~X~X~X~X~**_

_**Like I said, this whole thing was inspired by a visit to an aquarium in Hastings the other week. I'd forgotten how pretty fish are~ I'm hoping this will turn out like the version of it I have in my head, but really, what are the chances of that? See you all next chapter~**_

_**~IK~**_


End file.
